In an era when enthusiasts hammer the auto industry for building fleets of Beeplusmobiles—big and heavy cars designed in uniformity—the rear-engined, lightweight Smart should have some appeal. It doesn’t. Instead, Mercedes-Benz’s minicar is a pariah, great for squeezing into ad-hoc parking spots in Amsterdam and otherwise loathed in the U.S. In spite of this, there’s worthwhile potential for the brand here; Americans are buying smaller cars in general, and sales have doubled since Mercedes-Benz took over distribution from Penske. The next-generation model is on the way. Here are the details.

Still Rear-Engined, But Bigger

Mercedes-Benz engineers consider the rear-end placement of the engine a key element of Smart DNA, and that will remain on the next car. But the chassis will be significantly improved, and most important, it’ll be stretched substantially. The current Smart sits at 106.1 inches in length on a 73.5-inch wheelbase. Recent Smart concepts like last month’s Forstars, the For-Us (December 2011) and the Forvision (September 2011) are all much larger than the Fortwo that’s on sale today, and future models also will grow.

American dealers have told Smart that they want vehicles with a back seat—if not four doors. The company is going to oblige at least on the first request. Its corporate product planners are working on a broader Smart range of cars, though “not as many models as Mini.” The mention of Mini is critical. Smart won’t be positioned to go head-to-head with BMW’s small-car brand, but will play the same internal role. Just as Mini provides a small-car outlet for BMW, a way to sell lower-cost, smaller, funkier, more-efficient vehicles, Smart can do the same for Benz.

Another call from the U.S. market—and the rest of the world—is for a better transmission. Since the brand’s launch in the late 1990s, every car Smart has offered used a spasmodic automated manual gearbox. They have been consistently terrible in spite of upgrades. (Electric-powered Smarts, thus far built in extremely limited numbers, are the exception; they have a smoother single-speed transmission.) An engineer confirmed to us that yes, the next Smart will offer a more conventional gearbox.

If it sounds like Mercedes-Benz is listening to the U.S. in particular for input on the Smart, that’s because the company is. Until early 2011, Smarts were imported and distributed here by the Penske Group. Mercedes-Benz and its parent Daimler weren’t really involved, and that gave the already “not-quite-a-car” Smart a “not-quite-a-company” image. With Benz taking over last year, Smart has been reorganized as a professional outfit. Warranty programs are now four years and 50,000 miles; previously they were good for only two years. A cheap lease program was introduced, a good match for many of the people who buy Smarts to use as short-distance commuter cars.

The company’s execs aren’t looking for Smart to become a sales giant here, even within the subcompact segment. With 1030 Smarts sold in September of this year, the numbers don’t approach those of heavy hitters like the Ford Fiesta (3923 sales last month), but Mazda moved only 756 examples of the 2, and Toyota did just 1118 Yarises. At about 10,000 cars per year, the U.S. will be Smart’s fourth-largest market and a reasonably good seller in objective terms. The goal is to sell more Smarts in American regions where smaller cars make more sense, especially from a parking standpoint. Bigger, denser cities, like New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC will be the focus. Oklahomans aren’t going to buy many Smarts, and the suits at Daimler are well aware of this.

We’re expecting a debut of a production-ready next-gen Smart sometime in 2013.